Pro Thunder icon Don Tilley said Friday evening he was extremely disappointed at the treatment of the class at the hands of AMA Pro Racing officials. Specifically, Tilley points to the fact that last weekend’s Road America AMA National included sidecars on the program, after the Pro Thunder class had to be dropped, competitors were told, due to time constraints on doubleheader Superbike weekends. Sidecars are not normally part of an AMA Superbike weekend, and the class was added to the program of AMA National classes run at Road America.

Adding sting to the removal of Pro Thunder from the race at Road America is that fact the Buell and parent company Harley-Davidson are both based in nearby Milwaukee, making the Road America National the “home” race for the companies.

Tilley also pointed out that the AMA Pro Thunder race scheduled with a WERA National Challenge Series weekend in Portland, Oregon two weeks from now pays $600 to win, dramatically less than, for example, the $2500 that a win this weekend at Loudon pays.

Tilley currently campaigns two Buells in the Pro Thunder class with riders Tripp Nobles and David Estok.

In the second Pro Thunder practice in Friday, local hero Eric Wood was fastest on a Ducati at 1:14.928 while Nobles was second-fastest on Tilley’s Buell at 1:16.172. Estok was third-fastest at 1:16.812 followed by Ducati riders Robert Nigl (1:16.963), Tom Montano (1:17.310) and Jeff Nash (1:18.081).